Whangarei Health and Safety

The answer is Passion!

Hi! I’m Helen Smuts-Kennedy, and I’ve made it my personal mission in life to breathe a bit of personality back into Whangarei health and safety services. Somewhere, somehow, health and safety and human resources seem to have lost their pizzazz – but don’t worry! My team and I are committed to bringing the excitement back.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been keen on exploring, understanding, and explaining regulations. It’s something that not everyone can easily identify with – but for me it just comes as a second nature. In fact, it was my passion for navigating and interpreting health and safety regulations in New Zealand that kickstarted Safety in Mind: what better avenue for my quirky love of HR & H&S regulations than my very own business? So, after years of working within the industry helping tradies on the book keeping and administration side of things, I ditched the comfy chair and went rogue. As an independent HR & health and safety systems consultant, I can really get my hands dirty on the job, working alongside my clients to gain genuine insight into what H&S means to them and their team. Am I enjoying it? You bet!

Let’s get engaged. No, not like that. Health and safety policies with team buy-in

In case you hadn’t heard, the latest big push with new legislation is on ‘worker engagement’. It’s not hard to see why either: if your employees or team don’t ‘buy in’ to your company health and safety policies, there’s just no point in pushing it. If they’re not engaged, you’re wasting your mental energy, your time, and your money! That’s why my first job is to make sure your team get behind the H&S plan for your business. It’s simple: if everyone understands that we’re all in this together, that we’re working to make sure everyone gets home in one piece at the end of the day, then they’re 100% more likely to actually care.

Northland Health and Safety: throw out the rulebook!

When I tell my clients that I’m going to come to site with them, most of the time they look at me like I’m mad. But that’s ok, I’m getting pretty used to it now. I’ve found that sometimes, the only way to move ahead is to go by a different route – so with Safety in Mind, I decided not to work FOR my clients, but to work WITH my clients.

What a difference one word can make!

Instead of standing in a room of tradies or employees, preaching rules and regulations to them, I now find out what makes their business tick first. I get to know their unique needs, and once I feel that I understand the ins and outs of their working days, I put together Health and Safety training that will actually make sense for them. The other side of the WITH and not FOR argument, is that health and safety is an ongoing process, and it needs input and – here’s that word again: engagement to get the pony through the gate. We’re here to create systems, train teams and advise on solutions – but we can’t maintain a system that’s not being followed, and if your team is uninspired, then none of this will work.

Because let’s face it; no one looks forward to H&S training. Right?

Wrong.

Safety in Mind: HR and H&S training for your workplace. You WILL enjoy it.